About

Surprisingly, there are not a lot of light to moderate stock investment tabletop games. There are some deep games like Crude, Acquire and Stockpile, but not too many choices for the 15-30 minutes range. That is until now. Introducing The Piker. Show off your investment skills and auction finesse by collecting the most victory points in this cut-throat, competitive card and dice game for 2-5 players. If you enjoy games like

There's really only one rule: Don't be a piker. A piker is an amateur, small time trader. Instead, use your skills to implore a strategy of safe investments over the long haul or all-or-nothing gambles on high risk investments.

If you enjoy auction games like Speicherstadt or Ra then you are sure to love this game. But unlike most auction games, Piker uses dice rolls for the auctions adding an element of skill and chance to the game that creates a harmonious balance.

Investment cards include Foundation, Secure, Growth and Speculative. You can collect these groups to get bonuses. Here are some sample card designs.

Investment cards have two numbers on them. The right number is the Victory Point value. Victory Points are how you win the game. The left number is the cost. This is the minimum value of a dice you must use to secure the investment card.
The Market Volatility Cards have special effects that affect different parts of the game.

Bare Minimum Edition ($18 + shipping) - One copy of The Piker playing cards in a clear plastic box.

Standard Edition ($25 + Shipping) - One copy of The Piker game for up to 4 players. Includes game cards, 32 six-sided dice (in four colors) and rule book in a medium sized box with custom graphics.

Deluxe Edition ($32 + Shipping) - One copy of The Piker game for up to 5 players. Includes game cards, 40 six-sided dice (in five colors) and rule book in a medium sized box with custom graphics.
Also includes 5 screens to hide your dice rolls. Screens include custom graphics and game reference information.

1. Each player starts with 5 dice of their favorite color. Put the extra 3 dice to the side.

Game Play

All players roll their 5 dice Note: The player with the Piker card gets an extra dice for this turn

2 - Auction using Dice

Starting with the Piker, each player places one dice on a card they are interested in buying.

If you have an unsecured investment card, you can place a dice on it to secure it (see rule on securing a card).

You can also place a dice on the After Market card to secure investments later this turn.

3 - Add up the dice and resolve ties

Add up the dice on each card for each color. Highest dice total takes the card.

For a tie, the tying players rolls their dice and highest roll wins. It is possible for a player to roll up to three dice if they placed that many on the auction card.

4 - Turn over all market volatility cards

All Market Volatility cards purchased in this auction are turned face up. Any with immediate actions are played now.

All Cards are collected by the player that won them and remain face up.

Any cards not won are discarded.

5 - After Market

Any dice on the After Market can be used to secure a card.

Any player that did not win an auction card gets an extra dice for the next round.

The player with the least amount of secured and unsecured victory points gets The Piker card. If there is a tie, roll two dice and highest roll gets the card.

Pick up ALL of your dice. Repeat step 1.

Securing an investment

When you win an investment card from the auction, it is unsecured by default. Unsecured auction cards should remain face up and vertical. You do not get victory points for the card until your secure it.

You secure an auction card by placing a die of equal or higher value to the cost number (square box on the card). At the end of the round, you get that die back. Secured cards remain face up and horizontal so all players can see how many victory points you have secured.

Portfolio

As you secure cards, they become a part of your portfolio. If you have matching card types (such as Foundation, Secure, Growth and Speculative), you can gain bonuses.

1 of each (Foundation, Secure, Growth, Speculative) = +1 dice for the remainder of the game

3 of a kind = +2 victory points

4 of a kind = +4 victory points

5 of a kind = +6 victory points

Winning

After 6 rounds, the player with the most secured Victory Points wins. In the event of a tie, the players roll two dice to determine the winner. If a player has a tie-breaker card, they win the game.

$5,000 - Custom glossy insert of The Piker logo

$10,000 - A special token will be added to signify the player that is the Piker.

$25,000 - An additional 18 card expansion pack will be included that will only be available through this Kickstarter campaign.

$50,000 - We will host a Piker tournament. We're not sure how, but we will figure it out.

Risks and challenges

There are no risks to this project. The designs are complete and the printer is ready to process our orders. We just need to reach our goal to keep the costs low for us, so we can keep the cost low for you.

Also note that no one owns this game yet. So you can rest assured that you will be able to break out this game on game night and that no one else will have it.